


Surface and Substance

by tolarian



Series: Prometheus [2]
Category: Venom (Comics), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Consentacles, Dubious Consent, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Imagined Oral Sex, Long Live Feedback Comment Project, Multi, Other, Possessive Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Referenced Vore, Relationship Negotiation, discussions of multi-partner sex, mild sexual humiliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-08-01 15:10:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16286888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tolarian/pseuds/tolarian
Summary: Dan and Anne make an offer; Venom and Eddie have a discussion.





	Surface and Substance

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to imagine Venom's response to Dan and Anne suggesting sexual contact between them and Eddie, so this happened. May the fandom bless you and keep you, monster fuckers. The explicit tag may not be fully merited, but I thought better safe than sorry.
> 
> This occurs in the same universe as Prometheus, but the 'series' is just a number of interconnected stories featuring this sweet goo love. You don't need to read one to understand the other, but Prometheus will further specify what those sensory extremes Eddie mentions here turn out to be in the details. The conversation between Venom and Eddie about consent and hard limits here shows progress from their interaction in Acts of Service and I am genuinely proud of them.
> 
> I am considering some culinary adventures where Eddie investigates live food, in the hopes of pleasing Venom. Thanks for reading! Please consider leaving comments and/or kudos.
> 
> Content Notes at the End: there are a few!

What got them onto the topic tonight? Wine after dinner—seltzer for Eddie because Venom still saw alcohol as a personal affront to their mission to keep Eddie functional—and a conversation about some arty movie Dan and Anne had gone to see the previous weekend.

Apparently, there’d been a threesome scene.

And now, somehow, they are actually talking about it outside the realm of cinematography. It wasn’t the alcohol, really: only half a glass of wine for Anne, one and a half for Dan. Three seltzers for Eddie.

**He's nervous.**

Jesus, had they planned this? He knew that Dan and Anne were good, that Dan never worried about Anne’s past with Eddie. But this was almost insulting: Eddie had so little hold on Anne that Dan really didn’t mind if he fucked her in front of him?

**You _would_ find a way to be insulted about this. They want you, Eddie, they both do, in different ways. They have eyes. …Their eyes would be delicious.**

Now he knew Venom was teasing him, saying that when they knew Eddie couldn’t respond. He hadn’t told Dan and Anne that they were whole again. Hadn’t said it even as the couple had let Eddie into their life together, at least to eat dinner and visit Mr. Belvedere.

And now this, apparently.

“This isn’t like a cuckolding thing, right?” he asks. He’s not really into making people feel bad, even if feeling bad is what makes them feel good. Which Eddie gets, totally: he loves when Venom tests their shared pain tolerance, the extreme limits of what, ultimately, after a wild ride through their skin and senses, feels _good_.

He’s just not much for humiliating people, never has been. Teasing is just fine, but that’s usually as far as he likes to go.

Dan blinks at the word _cuckold_. “Oh, no. Anne just mentioned once about the way you’d go down on her and I, uh, couldn’t stop thinking about it.” Dan blushes and he’s somehow even shyer now. Even though he’d gone pink with embarrassment as soon as Anne had mentioned their recent theatre date. “I mean, I’ve been your doctor, so this is really unethical, but—” He cuts himself off, squirming in his chair. Eddie looks from Dan to Anne, who is watching Dan with an indulgent expression.

He knows, suddenly, that this wasn’t Anne’s idea, that this isn’t really about Anne at all. Dan wants Eddie to fuck him. Saw Annie’s big, sweaty ex-boyfriend and wondered was _that_ was like.

**You’re only noticing this now? He feeds us. Dead things, but he makes an effort. And a very good chocolate mousse. Ask him if he made it this time.**

“You okay with this, Annie?” he asks, genuinely curious. She hadn’t clarified to what degree she’d actually like to be involved, if at all. Anne’s a nurturer. She likes giving people what they want. Her own wants tend to come later, if at all. That had been one of their problems. Maybe he should caution Dan about it, tell him not to make Eddie's mistakes. It's not really his business, but he likes seeing her happy. Dan makes her happy.

**He also tried to take you away from us. We are not sure he deserves you, Eddie. Did he make the mousse? We might be willing to forgive him if he did.**

Anne smiles and she’s not even pretending to bait him with the promise of her. She knows he knows. And he’s known for years that Annie has a guilty fantasy about watching two men together. They’d just never gotten around to it. Except it seems they have, after a fashion.

“Honestly? It’s a little weird, but weird is where we live, Ed.” She looks at him thoughtfully, affectionate in the slightly sad, restrained way they are with each other. “You don’t have to do anything. We don’t expect you to put out just because Dan made dinner.”

Dan blushes an even deeper shade and Eddie wonders how many dinners he’s sat through with Dan thinking about fucking him in the last few months. It’s flattering—Dan’s attractive in a gangly, sweet kind of way and he and Annie would look just beautiful together. They do already. He wouldn’t mind seeing more of that if that’s on the table as well. Does she react differently to him? What faces does she make when Dan goes down on her?

**What faces would she make if _we_ went down on her?**

 And that is a complicating factor. Venom is an inextricable part of Eddie’s sex life: the way they feel when Eddie comes defies description. There’s no guarantee Venom won’t come out and it wouldn’t be fair to expect them to hide, anyway. And what did they think about sharing? They’d never _talked_ about this.

He’d never imagined Anne and Dan would—okay, maybe he had, once or twice, he’d imagined Venom’s tongue teasing up Annie’s inner thigh, savoring her sweat and the way she tasted after a long day sitting at her desk; Eddie’s cock shoved in Dan’s mouth, patting him a little harder than necessary, maybe, on those skinny shoulders. Holding him down with Venom’s big hands, putting Dan’s body to the test this time.

Fine, maybe once or twice he’s thought about it.

But any sexual fantasy he has lately is quickly transformed into a sexual reality, usually with Venom asking **Do you really want us to do that, Eddie?** and, after receiving an affirmative, doing things that would cause a normal body to fucking shut down.

Venom’s quiet right now, though. This probably isn’t happening, not this time. But Eddie does like teasing.

“How long you been trying to seduce me, Danny?" he asks, leaning forward. He grins—not as big as they can really grin, but the feeling’s real close—and puts his hand on Dan’s knee. It’s warm.

Dan jumps and spills his glass of wine. “Oh shit,” he says, looking guilty. It bounces on the tile but doesn’t shatter: Eddie’s impressed.

“I got it,” Eddie says, still smiling. He puts more weight on Dan’s knee and bends down to retrieve the glass. He’s half-across Dan’s lap, utterly unbothered by Dan going rigid. He moves, bobbing his head and shoulders close to Dan’s hip—not far from his obvious erection, _aw, Dan_ —when he wipes up the wine from the tile. 

“I can see that,” Anne says, amused as he drops the napkin on his empty plate. Her voice is warm—add in a little reverb and she’d sound like she and Venom had in the forest a few months ago.

Dan makes a little sound and squirms. Eddie leans back slightly, not as far away as he was originally. It’s nice to feel power that doesn’t have anything to do with strength or speed: just Dan wriggling in his chair after a little proximity, a little suggestion, and Annie smiling into her wine at it. There’s a tension in his chest that says this is about where things need to pause, though.

“Honest,” he says, looking into Dan’s wide eyes. Not flirting now, just candid. “It sounds like a lotta fun and maybe sometime, yeah. But not tonight: I’m still handling my shit, guys.” He pats Dan on the knee, giving it a little squeeze. Dan looks—relieved, maybe? A little disappointed, a little hopeful. Not breaching any major ethical codes tonight, unless Annie gets creative in order to help him feel better. She's very creative.

He turns to Anne. “Can we still do dessert?”

“Of course,” she says. “Dan handled dinner, so using my domestic powers, I bought us pecan pie. Go get it, Danny,” she says, giggling at the way Dan shuffles into the kitchen, unsuccessfully trying not to draw attention to his hard-on. It's adorable.

“I do like pecan,” Eddie responds, rubbing his hands together. Anne rolls her eyes affectionately as his bracelets clack on his wrists.

 ** _Pie_. We do not forgive Dan,** Venom says, still in a tight little lump in Eddie’s chest.

They eat dessert anyway. Eddie thinks Venom likes pecan more than they’re willing to admit.

* * *

Venom’s quiet all the way back home.

“You okay, bud?” he asks, pulling off his shoes after he closes the door to their little bachelor apartment. The answer is tendrils of mobile black flesh, gripping his clothes in a dozen places and pulling. His clothes are shreds.

“Aw, c’mon, those pants were new,” he says, as tentacles shoot toward the walls, the ceiling, slinging him into the bed. He’s dumped unceremoniously on the mattress. It’s hardly the first time, but there’s an added edge in Venom’s voice in his head that really needs addressing before this turns into a fuckfest.

**You want to fuck Dan.**

“Eh, I wouldn’t mind,” Eddie says, and it’s coming out all wrong. He tries to send reassurance Venom’s way but they’re a little distant, even as they twist over him, crowd into his skin. They’re writhing in him, but they’re not willing to let him in and that's not fair. They've talked about this.

“I’m sorry, V,” he says, because he's not starting this talk by accusing Venom of being emotionally withholding. “I was teasing and I went over the line.”

 **We are not opposed to fucking Dan. And being inside Anne was very pleasant,** they say, but there’s a note in there that isn’t right.

“You have to remind us you’ve been there more recently than I have, don’t you, buddy?” He asks, because this is the right kind of teasing, isn’t it? Venom _loves_ talking shit.

Venom stays silent, talking only in a buzz that’s under their skin, tendrils lashing over it. It’s not a tease, but it’s not a ravishing: they know what those feel like. Those feel good—they feel like Venom thrilling in their union, not trying to block it out even as they manipulate his body.

This is Venom brooding over him like a possession and they’re both unsettled by it.

“Hey,” he says, trying to push up, wanting to hug them to his chest, trying—even if Venom isn’t acknowledging the message—to show how much he wants to embrace them, hold them, too.

There’s a moment of continued twisting tension and then Venom goes small—maybe smaller than Eddie’s ever seen without them being injured. Venom twists in his hands and he squeezes them against his chest. They don’t sink in even a little, which is un-fucking-usual.

“Aw god, buddy, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, V, I love us. I don’t need anybody but us,” he starts to say, feeling a little frantic and trying to keep a lid on it.

 **Your species is very social,** Venom says doggedly. They’re a little bigger, though, a little closer in their mind, a little warmer against his chest.

“Humans, yeah. Lucky for us, we’re something unique.”

**You do not need to deny your instincts for our benefit.**

Eddie strokes the little goo ball starting to snuggle against him. All this power, all this enthusiastic hunger and love like he’s never imagined, and now they’re huddling close but not as close as they _can_ be. Venom’s shivering and withdrawn because Eddie was an asshole.

“What do you want, buddy? Please, just say.”

**We want you to want us more than any other.**

“We do.” It feels so good to say _we_ , taste the word with all its incredible depth: they can’t do that in front of Anne and Dan and it makes their mouth itch. _I_ sounds so goddamn lonely, hollow like a reed.

 **We want you to act like it. No teasing—not if we haven’t agreed. We will _discuss_ those things, if we get offers. Privately.** Venom slides little tendrils up over his shoulders, his neck, clinging close. A little pressure on Eddie’s windpipe—just enough to be reminded that Venom can breathe for them, send oxygen to their cells without organs acting as intermediaries. Eddie likes breathing. But he does enjoy the pressure.

**And never with anyone who is not aware of us, aware of what we really are together.**

“Of course. Always.” Eddie smiles and he starts to feel Venom spreading: they are on and in his chest, divisions dissolving, more like their usual size. Steadier than their heartbeat. “Though, bud, no-one’s ever really going to understand what we are, except us.” Affirmation swells in them, makes Venom stretch through him. “But we’ll never touch anyone like that who doesn’t want us—the real us. We promise.”

 **We promise**. Venom echoes and they're all the way in, now. Their body is suffused with warmth, to the tips of their toes. Perfect union down to each electron. But Venom’s attention stays in their sternum, pressing a little from the inside as Eddie strokes the plane of their chest.

They sit like that for a while.

“Do you want to tell them about us?” They can. They can do anything, together.

Venom hums inside their head. **No. Not yet.**

“Okay, love.” That’s the other word. The one that embarrasses them both, the one that lives under all the _bud_ s and the **Eddies** and the shit-talking. It’s the same way Venom lives under Eddie’s skin: the surface and substance are the same.

They sigh, contented. It’s the right word and they’re getting better at saying it.

Sometimes they fuck after fights—both kinds—high on survival and sorry and mutual need. Once, they argued about Eddie feeling like he was just something Venom ate live, something they liked the way they liked chocolate, but didn’t respect or need. After, they’d fucked with Venom _everywhere_. With Eddie biting down, _through_ the tentacle in their mouth and swallowing the flesh down, almost choking on it before feeling it wriggle down their esophagus. Guided by peristalsis to their stomach. They hadn’t immediately reabsorbed it, not the usual way, not the way Venom subsumed Eddie’s come into their flesh after wringing it out of them. After, they’d put their hands over their stomach and felt the weight of the devoured flesh there. **Oh** , Venom had said. **So that’s what that’s like.**

“Kinda, bud,” they’d said. “Now do the thing, make some space, and we’ll go get us some real food.”

 **Live food?** Venom had asked hopefully.

 **“Real food,”** their voice confirmed, twin tones reverberating in their chest, their head.

It’s like that now. Emotionally rather than physically fucked out and now they’re hungry again, like cannibalistic clockwork.

Eddie has their body sit up, scratching their scalp. He looks to see if they have any decent clothes within reach. Which, technically, includes the whole apartment, except for the bathroom. But only because the door is closed. Their full reach would require Venom extending, though, and it's so good to just completely overlap. Nothing that's Eddie that isn't Venom, nothing that's Venom that isn't Eddie. 

“C’mon, let’s go out. We’ll throw some chocolates for the pigeons. You love when we do that.”

**The pigeons know not to come near this apartment anymore, Eddie.**

“Then we’ll go somewhere we haven’t been, recently. We’ll bring a bottle of syrup. Chocolate-covered pigeons, V. Crunchy and sweet, just like we like.” A night-time delicacy, when anyone in the park is carefully minding their own business anyway.

 **We want to stay here,** Venom says stubbornly, then there’s a full body sigh, shared between them. **Get the bottle. Then we will decide.**

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this fic, consider [reblogging it on Tumblr!](https://tolarianfic.tumblr.com/post/180278752874/surface-and-substance)
> 
> Content Notes:  
> \- Anne and Dan are drinking wine, but not to excess: no-one's ability to consent is impaired by alcohol  
> \- Venom jokes about eating Anne and Dan's eyes (they are probably kidding)  
> \- Eddie mentions cuckolding, but it's a passing reference  
> \- Dan references the ethics of having been Eddie's doctor and now wanting to have sex with him; the transgressiveness seems to appeal to him, in a complex way  
> \- Eddie imagines having sex with Anne and Dan and Venom; there are some explicit details describing Eddie consensually performing and receiving oral sex  
> \- Eddie teases Dan without asking Venom if they consent to participate in the teasing; technically, he doesn't ask Dan either, but in this case, Dan has confirmed an interest in sexual contact, while Venom has not. However, there is the broader consent issue that Dan and Anne are not aware of Venom's presence, which means their consent is not informed. (The sex does not occur.)  
> \- Anne tells Dan to stand up and get the dessert while he's still uncomfortably erect; it's debatable to what extent this is an act of (mild) sexual humiliation and dominance; Dan, Anne, and Eddie seem comfortable with it, but Venom's opinion is unclear and again, the unknown fact of their presence clouds Dan and Anne's ability to consent  
> \- Venom violently shreds Eddie's clothing and throws him on their bed; Eddie is not afraid, but he's concerned by the apparent initiation of sex when Venom is obviously upset and withholding emotional contact from Eddie.  
> \- Venom and Eddie negotiate their strategies for possible sexual contact with others in the future, including a hard limit that they will not have sex with anyone who is not aware of their nature  
> \- Eddie remembers a previous argument and subsequent sexual encounter, which included Venom absorbing Eddie's semen and Eddie biting off and swallowing some of Venom's flesh, as well as feeling it travel down his esophagus and settle in his stomach before it is re-absorbed into their body.  
> \- Eddie offers to go throw chocolates for pigeons so they can eat them, possibly bringing chocolate sauce for flavor. It is clear that the pigeons would be consumed live.
> 
> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
> 
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